Dickens presents Scrooge as not caring about the poor because he says they should go to prisons and workhouses. This shows he is selfish and does not want to help people who are struggling. He seems like a cold person because he does not think about their feelings and just wants to be left alone.

Scrooge also says that poor people should die and decrease the surplus population. This is shocking because it shows that he does not value human life very much. Dickens makes him sound harsh and rude here, which makes the reader dislike him. It also shows that he is very mean at the start of the novella.

Another way Dickens presents Scrooge's attitude is by showing that he only cares about money. He does not want to spend anything helping others, even at Christmas. Overall, Dickens presents Scrooge as selfish, uncaring and cruel towards the poor.

Dickens presents Scrooge's attitude to the poor as dismissive and lacking empathy. At the start of the novella, Scrooge sees poverty as an inconvenience rather than a real human problem, which makes him seem cold and morally detached. Dickens uses him to represent selfish attitudes in Victorian society.

This is clear when Scrooge responds with the rhetorical question "Are there no prisons?" The use of a rhetorical question makes his response sound blunt and uncaring, as if institutions are enough and no further compassion is needed. Dickens presents Scrooge as someone who distances himself from suffering instead of recognising any responsibility towards the poor.

Dickens develops this further through Scrooge's reference to the "surplus population". This phrase is disturbing because it reduces poor people to numbers rather than individuals, showing how little value Scrooge places on human life. By using this dehumanising language, Dickens exposes how dangerous and inhumane these attitudes are. This encourages the reader to reject Scrooge's viewpoint and see the poor with more compassion.

Overall, Dickens presents Scrooge's attitude to the poor as cruel, ignorant and emotionally detached. However, by making these views so extreme, Dickens is also criticising a wider social attitude and pushing his readers to think differently about responsibility and generosity.